Megan Markle – A Citizenship Story

Megan Markle in 2013, photo by Genevieve

We have been remiss in covering the biggest immigration story of 2017 – American actress Megan Markle is engaged to marry Prince Harry of the UK. News enough on its own. But the fun for immprofs is that Markle intends to become a UK citizen after her marriage.

How will she do it? Helpfully, immprof Stella Burch Elias (Iowa) has a great article on point: Testing Citizenship, 96 Boston University Law Review 2017 (2016). Section II.C (Starting on page 2121) gives us the skinny on UK naturalization. Markle must have a period of residence in the UK as a permanent resident (this BBC article has great details on that point), be “of good character,” demonstrate that she is “closely connected” to the UK, make a pledge and oath or affirmation of allegiance at the citizenship ceremony, have a sufficient knowledge of English, and, most challenging, she must achieve a passing score on the “Life in the U.K.” test (here’s some fun reporting on that last bit).

Of course, becoming a UK citizen doesn’t mean Markle automatically loses her US citizenship. And, remember, that’ll take time to accomplish in any event.

In the meantime, as WaPo reports, Markle and Prince Harry will have some annoying tax issues to deal with as she’ll continue to be taxed by the IRS on her worldwide income and have to make financial disclosures to U.S. authorities. I love this understated sentence from WaPo: “This sharing of financial information with the U.S. government would probably be undesirable for the royal family, which has long preferred that its finances remain opaque.” You think?

Well, it’ll be fun to watch from the sidelines. You bet those Spring semester students will sit up in their seats a little straighter when you bust out a Markle reference when covering citizenship.

 -KitJ